The All-Sports Ministry of PA NJ & DE - Executive Summary Start-Up Budget & Prospectus
The All-Sports Ministry of PA NJ & DE - Executive Summary Start-Up Budget & Prospectus
The All-Sports Ministry of PA NJ & DE - Executive Summary Start-Up Budget & Prospectus
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CIRCLE Working Paper 44: February 2006<br />
<strong>Sports</strong>, Youth and Character: A Critical Survey<br />
I. INTRODUCTION<br />
Sport builds character. Mens sana in corpore sano.<br />
Physical, mental, and moral health go together.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se are foundational beliefs in modern society.<br />
For example, they undergird the European Union’s<br />
nomination <strong>of</strong> 2004 as the “Year <strong>of</strong> Education<br />
through Sport,” an intensification <strong>of</strong> the Union’s<br />
decades-long “sports for all” policy. 3 Vivian Reding,<br />
European Commissioner for Education and Culture,<br />
observes:<br />
One in every three Europeans regularly<br />
practices a sport. Yet more needs to be<br />
done to make sports an integral part <strong>of</strong><br />
people’s education and life. . . . Next to<br />
the active support <strong>of</strong> appropriate projects,<br />
and school sport in particular, we intend<br />
[in 2004] to sensitize the awareness <strong>of</strong><br />
European citizens for the values which<br />
sport effortlessly and naturally conveys<br />
and that are indispensable for a happy<br />
and fulfilling life in our community. 4<br />
Likewise, here in the United States these<br />
foundational beliefs are <strong>of</strong>ficially endorsed by the<br />
President’s Council on Physical Fitness and <strong>Sports</strong>,<br />
which views itself as a “catalyst to promote,<br />
encourage and motivate Americans <strong>of</strong> all ages to<br />
become physically active and participate in sports.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Council declares:<br />
We place a special emphasis on programs<br />
to help our nation’s youth lay the<br />
foundation for active and fit lives. <strong>The</strong><br />
. . . [Council] believes that physical<br />
activity and fitness <strong>of</strong>fer important<br />
health benefits. And, just as important,<br />
we recognize the fact that sports and<br />
participating in sport activities help<br />
individuals develop character, discipline,<br />
confidence, self-esteem, and a sense <strong>of</strong><br />
well-being. 5<br />
While these foundational propositions seem<br />
transparent to the “sports participant” and to all<br />
“sportsmen who year by year have contact with<br />
the playing <strong>of</strong> amateur sports,” the operation <strong>of</strong><br />
the “intertwined” and “subtle” influences that make<br />
these propositions true is another matter. That<br />
the influences are not “easy to analyze” points to a<br />
need for the tools <strong>of</strong> the social scientist. What does<br />
the use <strong>of</strong> these tools reveal about the mechanisms<br />
that make sports participation a valuable adjunct<br />
to character development? Indeed, what does the<br />
use <strong>of</strong> these tools prompt social scientists to say<br />
about the foundational propositions themselves?<br />
In an extensive survey in 1975 <strong>of</strong> previous<br />
research, Christopher L. Stevenson concluded that<br />
“there is no valid evidence that participation in<br />
sport causes any verifiable socialization effects.” 6<br />
Even earlier, two researchers, Bruce Ogilvie and<br />
Thomas Tutko, had announced in the popular<br />
forum, Psychology Today, that they “found no<br />
empirical support for the tradition that sport builds<br />
character.” 7 Contemporary scholars echo these<br />
contentions. Andrew Miracle and Roger Rees in<br />
their recent study <strong>of</strong> high school sports conclude<br />
that “there is no evidence to support the claim that<br />
sport builds character in high school or anywhere<br />
else.” If anything, sports participation among<br />
younger kids, they suggest, may yield negative<br />
effects – making the participants more rather than<br />
less prone to unsportsmanlike conduct. 8 When two<br />
leading contemporary scholars, David Shields and<br />
Brenda Bredemeier, note that sport’s characterbuilding<br />
propensity is “no longer so widely shared”<br />
as an article <strong>of</strong> faith, they understate the broad<br />
skepticism among researchers. 9<br />
Not only does social science scholarship fail<br />
to present a unified picture <strong>of</strong> the subtle and<br />
intertwined influences that promote character<br />
development through sport, much <strong>of</strong> it appears<br />
actually to undermine the foundational beliefs all<br />
“sportsmen” know without need <strong>of</strong> argument. Why<br />
is social science scholarship so at odds with what<br />
seemingly needs no pro<strong>of</strong>?<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are two reasons. First, studies <strong>of</strong> sport<br />
and character seldom overcome a threshold<br />
requirement <strong>of</strong> scientific methodology itself.<br />
Second, many investigators labor under several<br />
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